Cave Refuge

At this moment, Zachary would also recall that when he was deep in the illusion, he too had a pair of sunglasses on his face. He was too anxious to escape from the illusion at the time to investigate where the sunglasses on his face had come from, subconsciously assuming that he'd taken them out of the Storage space—after all, he had stuffed too much miscellaneous stuff in there, and it was normal to pull out a pair of sunglasses.

However, after Mason Hart's reminder just now, Zachary realized that when he was in the illusion, he should not have been able to use the Storage space normally. Considering that, the sunglasses that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere in his hands seemed to pose an even bigger issue the more he thought about it.

So, Zachary subconsciously turned his gaze to the sunglasses he had just removed from the other person's face using Divine Sense. Normally, sunglasses worn on the face wouldn't fall off so easily. If not for Zachary's stealthy assistance, such a coincidence wouldn't have occurred—where a slight tug between the two would lead the sunglasses to fall directly from the face.

When Zachary shifted his attention to the sunglasses that had fallen to the ground, an extremely awkward feeling surged from the depths of his heart. It was as if on one hand, he felt the glasses on the ground were important, while another thought insisted that they were just ordinary sunglasses with nothing special about them, so there was no need to bother with them.

Two completely opposite thoughts intertwined within, one wanting to pick up the sunglasses on the ground to examine them carefully, and the other thinking they were just ordinary sunglasses fallen on the ground, not worth shifting his focus to.

Although he didn't know why his subconscious kept wanting to ignore the glasses on the ground, the more this idea arose, the more it captured Zachary's rational attention.

After all, if there was no issue, according to Zachary's personality, he would have already gone over to pick up the sunglasses. Yet even now, two distinct thoughts wrestled within him. Coupled with the suspicion that there might be something wrong with the sunglasses, Zachary not only failed to go over and pick them up, he didn't even harbor the thought to do so. The more this occurred, the more his rational mind told him to be wary.

As rationality gradually took the upper hand, Zachary looked around at the other people in the courtyard. He noticed that like himself a moment ago, although Mason Hart had already stated he had no means to acquire the sunglasses and therefore couldn't possibly be wearing them, everyone's attention was fixated on Mason, while the sunglasses, another protagonist in the story, were being subconsciously ignored by all.

As Zachary approached them, that awkward feeling inside grew stronger. However, although he felt this internally, Zachary's rational mind was dominant, so his actions were not affected in the slightest.

Zachary's sudden movement drew the eyes of the others, but strangely enough, the closer he got to the sunglasses on the ground, the more everyone else looked away, subconsciously ignoring Zachary's peculiar behavior at this moment.

When Zachary walked up to the sunglasses intending to pick them up, he tried several times but didn't succeed in getting the sunglasses in his hand. He didn't understand why, as it seemed that he should have grabbed the sunglasses, yet when he stood up, for some reason, his hand was empty, and the sunglasses remained still in their original spot.

After failing several times, the awkwardness in Zachary's heart intensified. Seeing the sunglasses on the ground like an illusion, Zachary closed his eyes and then observed the sunglasses on the ground using Divine Sense.

As soon as he switched to Divine Sense to lock onto his target, Zachary realized the problem. In his line of sight, he had already approached the sunglasses, which lay just at his feet, easily within reach if he simply bent down.

However, under Divine Sense's observation, though he had come close to the sunglasses, his standing position was still half a step away from where the sunglasses actually were. Unless Zachary lay on the ground, bending over from his current stance wouldn't allow him to touch the sunglasses.

After discovering this, Zachary immediately understood that the sunglasses on the ground were definitely not ordinary. Having confirmed this, he immediately took a step forward, and then relied on Divine Sense to pick up the sunglasses from the ground.

As Dong Tianyu picked up the sunglasses from the ground, the growing discomfort in his heart instantly vanished. Besides that, the eyes of everyone else in the courtyard shifted to him in an instant.

"Zachary, what are you doing, and how did a pair of sunglasses suddenly appear in your hand? The sunglasses you're holding, could they be the ones that fell off Mason's face when we were tussling?"

Hearing what Old Taylor said, before Dong Tianyu could reply, Mason Hart, who was standing nearby, immediately started complaining, "Old Taylor, stop falsely accusing people, okay? Haven't I said that since the Natural Disaster, I haven't worn sunglasses at all? Don't blame it on me whenever a guest picks up a random pair of sunglasses and claims I used to wear them, it's not fair."

After listening to Mason's defense, Old Taylor wanted to say something more, but before he could, Dong Tianyu quickly spoke up, "This thing doesn't seem like ordinary sunglasses." As he said this, Dong Tianyu also deliberately shook the sunglasses he held in his hand.

When everyone's attention turned to the sunglasses, Dong Tianyu then slowly started, "Do you guys remember when I went to pick up the sunglasses?"

Upon hearing Dong Tianyu's question, the people around immediately began to recall. In their memories, they vaguely saw Dong Tianyu walking toward the location of the sunglasses, and then it seemed they forgot about it.

Everyone was no fool; the courtyard was not that large. Moreover, the positions where they stood were pretty close to each other. Under normal circumstances, not to mention Dong Tianyu's considerable action, it would definitely have attracted their attention. Even if they did not actively pay attention to Dong Tianyu's movements, Dong Tianyu's actions should have appeared within their field of vision from their different positions.

However, Dong Tianyu's every move had been ignored just now. It was as if Dong Tianyu had turned invisible until he grabbed the sunglasses in his hand, and only then did Dong Tianyu's figure seem to reappear.

By now, everyone also realized that there must be something wrong with the sunglasses in Dong Tianyu's hands. Not understanding the situation, Mr. Thompson actively asked, "Son, tell me what just happened."

Regarding his father's inquiry, Dong Tianyu did not conceal anything and directly explained what he had discovered, "Just now, Mason said that he never wears sunglasses, and hearing him say that it was difficult to get sunglasses at this time instantly reminded me. Since I entered the camp, I have also encountered quite a few people wearing sunglasses.

Initially, when we hadn't been attacked by monsters, I didn't pay attention to this, but after encountering that kind of monster attack and discussing the nature of those monsters with Madeline, I understood that the survivors in the camp wearing sunglasses could very likely be under the control of those monsters.

However, what's strange is that even though I already knew about this, somehow, I completely ignored this important piece of information. Even after taking down the sunglasses from Mason's face, I didn't care about it.

But what Mason inadvertently said reminded me; at this time, during a period when the Natural Disaster keeps occurring, how did we manage to preserve so many sunglasses in our camp? Where exactly did these sunglasses come from?

Because of this thought, I became somewhat curious and wanted to pick up the sunglasses on the ground to check what was so special about them.

But when I had that thought and prepared to go over and pick up the sunglasses, I suddenly felt that the sunglasses on the ground were actually not that important, so there was no need to bother with them."